Add .dropboxignore directory to exclude folders without using selective sync

At this moment it seems that any sync software (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox) can not do that. You can be first, and make so many people happy

+1. Dropbox is awesome for web/app developers, but lacks the ability to ignore tmp files, or vendor folders like node_modules, bower_components, etc.

I've given up at this point, I don't think dropbox really cares about their previously core product. Now they're much more interested in adding features like image hosting, and office integration, while their original sync tech gets no attention and feature requests like this are ignored. I let my linked credit card expire and won't be renewing when my current membership runs out. Pretty disappointing since I've been a paying customer for years now.

I would love to see this implemented, and if so, I'll reconsider coming back to Dropbox.

But like others have hinted at, I too gave up. Syncing node_modules was killing me and my computer. Instead, I decided to go with rsync.net and I wrote my own Node CLI (https://github.com/manovotny/node-backup) to run or create rsync scripts, which includes the ability to ignore files and folders. Hooked up the the Mac's built-in cron, it's serving my quite nicely as an alternative.

No doubt Dropbox is a company which places importance on simplicity. However, if they're worried about adding complexity, I would recommend adding it as an undocumented feature. Maybe just a mention in a changelog somewhere. Then people all over the internet will write tutorials on how to do it - and the people who are looking for the feature (developers / advanced users) will have no trouble finding this information - not to mention go on to passionately share Dropbox with colleagues, friends and family.

This is what I had back from Dropbox support last month on this issue. Don't know whether the dev team took any notice, but I will keep pestering:
"Thank you for this feedback. We are always looking for user input when creating the next version of the Dropbox app.
Unfortunately, I do not have access to the exact roadmap and am not able to say whether or not there is a plan for a similar feature.
However, I think the idea makes a lot of sense and I will make sure your comments are passed along to our development team."

I'm pretty sure that every single developer would benefit from this functionality along with the company itself with bandwidth and storage savings. How do they quantify demand? +1's here?

So I'll be able to stop syncing hundreds of thousands of dependency and log files in vain, lowering a lot the stress on both my machines and their servers.

Sadly they weren't very specific about how they calc demand, I guess it is not an exact science. This is what I got back from support:

"I have forwarded your feedback to our client (desktop app) team, who are looking further into this. Initially, we will start to track this to try to estimate the demand is for this type of feature, and also to collect more use cases like yours that will help us to better understand how to improve Selective Sync. That will then help us determine how to best proceed."

Got tired of not having this, now using BitTorrent Sync for the files where I needed it the most. They do this with a IgnoreFile: http://sync-help.bittorrent.com/customer/portal/articles/1673122-ignoring-files-in-sync-ignorelist-

It's not great, but it gets the job done... and that's what counts.